Until all of us are safe!

We are the tears of Sylvia Marcos and will keep weaving the connections between us until none of us falls down.

ANF - NİLGÜN YELPAZE

FRANKFURT

Tuesday, 9 Oct 2018, 15:00

The first international women conference took place on 6-7 October in Frankfurt with the title “Revolution in the Making” and proved that a lot of way has been already taken in this making process. Sitting middle of the room surrounded by all ages of women from all around the world I have felt suddenly, that the women revolution has started, and no one can stop it anymore. There was no more fear, no more anxiety of feeling alone, and no more insecurity in front of the traps capitalist modernity paving on our ways. We should just keep taking steps. I have felt the self-confidence and the power we have taken from each other and from the sisterhood will last long enough to continue making this revolution.

Looking around the big conference room, I am trying to remember whether I have participated in such a big event that is organized and participated only by women and what are the forces behind this historical moment. As the closest feeling I can recall, since many years we have reclaimed the nights and the streets in Istanbul during the 8th of March and 25th of November demonstrations, as well as in Berlin, raising the sisterhood of women of color from different countries. And now we are reclaiming the knowledge, the right to produce and share the knowledge with each other against the structures trying to isolate us in our private spheres and put many obstacles in front of us in reaching the truth. Whenever I see three or more men sitting next to each other presenting a panel discussion about some topic, I always hesitated to listen them. It was never about those particular men are possibly wrong, it was about the representation and power, who has right to share their opinions about random issues and who has not. Because I always knew I could not learn anything from a man who refuse to participate in such a set-up, who is not aware of the gender inequality and his own privilege. I never listened any speech does not include women any more, or did not watch films where women did not speak. Now sitting in this room, I was feeling all of my fears and frustrations went away. Because there are so many women from all over the world who is producing knowledge and willing to share it with me and with her other sisters. And not only by saying things, but also by looking into each other’s eyes, by holding hands, by hugging, by smiling. Sometimes by crying. There has been so much experience accumulating. I should just open my heart and my release my body. What is “in the making” is the force that all those experience would canalize into. Which will become a unified body, just like the way we feel in this room when we dance or chant together, and weave the world that we will feel safe and strong together inside.

It is impossible not to see the role of the Kurdish women movement and the ideology in this accumulating experience. Not only because the conference is organized by Kurdish women’s movement, that all the panelists were arranged, a thematic program was created, the room was booked, all the materials were printed, banners were painted, sleeping places were found and the food was cooked by them or their organization of internationalist women who are collaborating. But because the ideological and practical level Kurdish women’s movement have reached to a point to have global influence and inspiration for the women’s revolution worldwide. Apart from dedication and hard work which every woman in the world has in order to survive and resist, the women of the world are now analyzing the keys that Kurdish women’s movement is holding in their hands.

This key is nothing else than the “self-defense” ideology. Holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes, we all silently share one certain statement: we do not want to die any more, as it was stated in the speeches or in the comments. We do not want to die any more or let each other to die, like black women experiencing state violence and systematic discrimination in the USA as Jade put clearly, women of Honduras who are being kidnapped by drug cartels as Miriam told, women killed by ISIS in the Middle East as Khawla pointed out, we do not want none of us to die anymore. We have the knowledge and history of resistance, like Radha have shared the resisting women’s stories and photos from India for example. The history and knowledge of women was always there and patriarchal powers always wanted to deny it, violently silence it and deliberately make it forgotten. In return, the Kurdish women’s movement have proved that this history and knowledge can be defended and preserved. As Selay from Afghanistan said during in her speech: What makes Kurdish women’s movement particular is the presence of armed women. And as Rojda added, the self-defense includes definitely the armed self-defense (which was radicalized and criminalized by European feminisms since long time and needed to be reconsidered), but also cannot be only reduced to that.

Jineoloji is a call to the women of the world to hold this key all together and create the world that we will not die anymore in, that we will feel always strong and confident and keep making the revolution. Until there is no hierarchy or power relations between us and in our minds any more. As Sylvia Marcos quoted “I will not walk in front of you, I will not walk behind you. I will walk right beside you.” Women from Kurdistan, from Honduras, from Syria, from Argentina or from India are walking beside each other and chanting together, “Black Lives Matter”, “Ele Nao”, “Jin Jiyan Azadi!”.

We are the tears of Sylvia Marcos and will keep weaving the connections between us until none of us falls down.